Students’ Speak: Find a mentor and fear of failure would be history

By: Tanvir Singh

The fear of failure is the biggest inhibition to success. At this time, you should put your doubts to a pause and have some break. Perhaps, it is the best time to find your right Mentor.

I have been through some bumpy patches in my life where everything was obsolete, disconnected, and not making any sense. At this time, you would feel like giving up and forget all your ambitions because none of your hard work is paying off. Everything you try to do is backfiring. You prepared a week for those LR-DI questions for CAT, but still, there is no sign of any improvements. The entrance exam is just a month away. Will I clear it or will I fail?

Ohio State University defines a mentor as “Someone you look up to and who has your best interest in mind. Telling you things you don’t necessarily want to hear but you need to, people who see your actual potential and need nothing more except for to develop your prosperity and help you flourish with no vested interest”.

It is this time when you would evaluate your collection of mentors and pick one out of them. The closer and connected you both are, the safer you are. Share everything with them, share how you feel about yourself, how did your day go, also share with them the things that are bothering you. I am sure they will never judge you; most importantly, always find time for them. This is what I did, and finally, my rough patch ended because my mentor instilled confidence in me, told me things which no one ever could.

But the real challenge is finding one such mentor.  However, my mentor was no one else but me. You will figure out that your best mentor is always inside you. It has always been there. All you need to do is find some time. I hope you will also find your best mentor soon, don’t stop looking now since you know where to find him and then your fear of failure would be history.

About the Author:

Tanvir Singh is pursuing MBA from Indian Institute of Management, Visakhapatnam. He is majoring in marketing with a minor in strategy. At present, he is the senior coordinator of Media Cell and Public Relations club at IIMV. His interests range from football to corporate business competitions. He has also been recognised as the best intern of the year during his summer internship period.